Hypospadias Repair in Your Baby
Hypospadias is usually diagnosed at birth. When a decision is made to correct it, hypospadias surgery most often is done in the first year of life. Dr. Warren Snodgrass and D.r Nicol Bush of PARC Urology are specialists in hypospadias repair, working with a team of professionals to care for their young patients. This includes pediatric anesthesiologists and PALS-certified pediatric nurses for preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative care.
Hypospadias repair can be done with good results at any age. In this video, Dr. Snodgrass and Dr. Bush discuss advantages to doing the surgery in younger boys since they will have no lasting memory afterwards. Some older boys with uncorrected hypospadias have difficulties standing to urinate (pee), and may worry about what their friends will think about their penis looking different. Older teens and adults often say they are anxious what a lover will think about how their penis looks. These concerns can be avoided when successful hypospadias surgery is done earlier in life.
Dr Snodgrass and Dr Bush previously published that hypospadias repair can be done safely as day surgery in infant boys, which is the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Many parents also wonder about general anesthesia in young children. All PARC Urology patients undergoing hypospadias surgery have a nerve block done after they go to sleep, similar to how a dentist numbs the teeth, to minimize the need for general anesthesia and to reduce discomfort both during the procedure, and when the boy wakes up afterwards. The pediatric anesthesia specialist is available to answer any additional questions parents may have.
Another question that parents often have is whether the penis will be larger if they wait until their child is older to have his hypospadias repaired. We and others have shown that the size of the head of the penis grows in the first 3 months of life, when babies undergo a “mini-puberty”, and then does not really change in size until after the age of 10 years old.
Many scientific articles show that the best results for delicate operations are achieved by experts who do those operations frequently. Dr Snodgrass and Dr Bush at PARC Urology are hypospadias specialists, doing hypospadias surgery nearly every day. In addition, their results for both distal and proximal hypospadias repair are among the very best reported throughout the United States and around the world.
Dr Snodgrass and Dr Bush have authored more than 100 articles and textbook chapters, and have travelled around the world talking about technical steps during hypospadias repair that can be taken to reduce the risk of developing complications after hypospadias repair.